4.5 stars from me!

Oooh that's so nearly 5 stars isn't it!

Natural Causes is dark, brooding, grisly, intense, clever and immensely readable. I absolutely loved it and found myself frequently not wanting to put it down when I very much needed to (work and life do get in the way of a good book, don't they!).

I've seen reviews for this where people have found the opening scene to be a bit too full on - just to say that this scene is now at the back of the book, to be read or not as the reader wishes. Needless to say I read it and it is pretty grim!

I really like Detective Inspector Tony McLean, he is a 'proper' detective; can't rest until he's absolutely got to the bottom of a case. Stuart MacBride is great too and a lot of the more central characters are strong enough to carry the role - the only relationship that didn't work for me was the love interest but I guess that's hard when you've created a stand alone, aloof, need-no-one guy.

I recently reviewed Dead Men's Bones which is a later book in this series and I have to say I much, much preferred Natural Causes. Whether that is because the characters are more familiar to me now I'm not sure but for me this book is seriously good and I can't wait to read the next one.

So, why did it lose that last half a star? One teensy thing that just took it all a step too far (not the money, not the fact he's always right, not the many coincidences - I liked all of those); it was the last connection, the relative, that didn't work for me. A bridge too far.